


Pale Gold

by kingsrangergilan



Category: Deathless - Catherynne M. Valente, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alcohol, Coming of Age, Deathless, F/M, M/M, Rating May Change, Swearing, a little pushkin, and maybe light again, assumed underage, how kylo turns dark, russian folktales
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 11:17:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6421801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingsrangergilan/pseuds/kingsrangergilan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben Solo, a clever Jedi padawan, is swept up and enthralled by Hux, man who seems to be more powerful than death itself. In games for power, Ben Solo accompanies Hux as his consort and eventual undoing, while becoming someone else entirely himself. Based on Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente and Ruslan and Ludmila by Pushkin</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who is to Rule

"Who is to rule. Who is to rule. Who is to rule," chanted Ben Solo, meditating in his own way while lying on the cool stone floor of one of the huts of the Jedi Academy. Patience, Master Luke said, and equality. But Ben, self-described as experienced at sixteen, knew that was bullshit. His mom and his dad actually got things done, and they did it by force. Or forceful words. Showing who was boss, who had the cards. And they still were good, too good. So Ben meditated differently, just a bit. 

The spring air was woken when someone knocked on the door to his room. Ben, almost asleep in the misty afternoon, immediately straightened. It couldn't be anyone from the academy, knocking wasn't apparently a custom around here. His pilot must have come for him! Since he'd been here, Ben had seen older padawans fly off to the resistance, and he had made it a game for himself to climb to the highest tree in the compound to catch a glimpse, before anyone else, of the dashing resistance pilots which promised more interesting things. 

Ben opened the door to greet a tall man with hair like flame with a little grey at the edges, who couldn't have been much past 20. The man looked dangerously beautiful to Ben, in a way which he had never expected men to be, and he wore a dark uniform with a red sash and the emblem of the First Order. Ben shivered, and could have sworn he smelled the force traced into the man's sweeping black coat.

“I am General Koschei, surnamed Hux,” he said with a voice like dark water, “and I have come for the boy in the tree". He was absolutely everything Ben dreamed of, but only realized he wanted then. This was his pilot, made for him.

"Me?" Ben asked, stepping away from the general, "Well, I must ask Master Luke first, and-" The man with the voice like a churning sea cut him off.

"Take what is yours and come with me. There is no need to ask your teacher." Ben wanted to scream, he wanted to kiss the man. Half of him compelled by Hux, half of him ready to cry, Ben packed his lightsaber and returned to the door. Drawn like a magnet to a knife, Ben followed the dark-coated man outside. They entered the forest behind the dorm, and there sat a ship like a baby owl. The General climbed in, and nestled the padawan beside him. Ben felt the man beside him, wicked as ice, and it started numbing his side. Hux held Ben by his side as to restrain him, as if the teen was a wolfling which might twist and bite his way out. 

The ship started up and shot out of the clearing without a pilot's touch and Ben was faced with the sudden fear of not knowing where he was going, but the coldness slowed down his thinking so he did not speak out. He felt ripped apart, he wanted to run away, he wanted to draw closer to the man, he wanted to burst, he wanted to ask why now? Are you really for me? He remembered his something his father had said, as he fell away with the lovely Hux, "If you must insist on being clever, then be clever. Be brave. Sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.” Hux, cold and bitter as a forest, leaned over and kissed Ben unchastely. It felt like when he gave into the force; it felt like being swallowed whole.


	2. The Seduction

The dark control shuttle exploded into the atmosphere in streaks of red, and seemed to scream and the suddenly unfamiliar stars. Ben shuddered, and Hux, like a block of ice, drew him closer. The young Jedi looked up, and Hux was studying him closely, possessively.  
"I will keep you," the General reassured as the ship rattled on autonomously.

They had not gone too terribly far when the ship broke off of its volatile path to wander to a moon. Ben felt sick as they plummeted to earth and the shuttle with its sleek spires wheezed to fall apart. He desperately clawed and clung to the wintery Hux, and his fear dampened as his fingernails turned to icicles. 

They entered the atmosphere and glided down to a secluded cabin obscured by the dusky darkness. The only way Ben could make out its shape in fact, were the lights peeking from windows which reminded him bittersweetly of coming home for the holidays. Ben jammed his face into his robes to hide his red eyes. Don't think about it! He threatened himself, this is to forget all that!

They buffered into a landing, and Hux picked up Ben bridal-style and took him into the base. Ben was indignant; he was almost a full jedi knight and here he was like a baby with his long legs. Inside the first chamber was a glass table sagging with delicacies across the galaxy: Correlian brandy, dru'un, crab rotoven, slaur roe, yobas. 

"Damn General," Ben surveyed, "how many people are you expecting?" Hux placed him at a seat at the table and again sat crushingly close.

"It is only us," the General hummed, "and there is no reason for you to speak at all, please." So, instead of asking a million padawan questions, Ben just reached for a close slice of bread. Hux snatched it away. 

"Now," Hux continued, "I know you have many lessons in that shamble of brainwashing center. But here we will be learning something new together. I will show you so later you cannot complain. See, I will be taking your stubborn rebel will and keeping it safe for and from you. It's really a shame wills are genetic-considering you parents this should be a ride. But if it wasn't, where would the game be? You know nothing, so pay attention, padawan." He spit the last word, and poured Ben a glass of the brandy. Then, Hux took the forbidden bread, covered it with rich butter, and then the slaur roe, sparkling.

"This is opulence, isn't it Ben Amidala? Your mother rejected her royalty, a weak move. Here, I revel in what I have. In what you can have." The General fed Ben the bread, and then the other dishes piece by piece, and Ben saw crystal chandeliers, pale gold. He had a million questions, but waited. Maybe Hux would give the answers if he just waited, right?

"Listen again, jedi brat," Hux continued, "This is your right. But you must be cruel, for only those who are cruel inherit anything. Like your grandparents, both of them, look at them! I can teach you so much more than that bullshitter Luke ever could. Because when you have the history, and you are cruel, you can feast like this."

In the middle of the night, Ben woke, ran from Hux's side, and threw up all over the floor. He looked up to where the black shuttle had been to see instead a black tauntaun. Ben Amidala Skywalker Organa Solo dared to ask a question.

"What the fuck?"


End file.
